Saturday, July 7, 2012

Freaky Weather in Tennessee

We've been having a rather bad drought in the Chattanooga area, so everyone was happy when storms were forcast for Thursday. But it turned into a freaky weather situation that no one expected.

First we had severe storms with bad lightning and very little rain. Hail was reported but on my sidewalk it turned into giant raindrops that only lasted a few minutes.

An hour later, Chattanooga got squeezed between two more severe storms, and the outflow created a dry "Gust Front" wind that wreaked havoc over a wide area. I would have called it a "gustnado" because it was twisting trees first to the left then the right. This video captures it well - I'm glad no trees fell on this guy!

I have never seen waves like this on Lake Chickamauga, and for 8 years I lived right on the Tennessee River.

In our neighborhood a power pole snapped in half and took down the lines. It was 24 hours later that we got our power restored, after my husband went directly to the power board building and reported it for the third time. Thank God because this afternoon the temperature inside our house at 5 p.m. was 90 degrees.

But I realize that what we have suffered for 24 hours is nothing compared to those up in Virginia and the Washington DC area this past week. I hope everyone gets the power back on soon.

Between the tornadoes over the past year, and this Gust Front, I can't even imagine what could be next. I don't want to know!